So Many Community Gardens, Not Enough Time

By Joe Lamp'l on October 4, 2010

Just a fraction of the hundreds of donated plants awaiting their new home

This post relates to our episode number 121 on community gardening. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, it’s available for viewing on our website here. Our challenge to tell the story of community gardening in America was daunting. With such a surge of interest in this topic, selling viewers on the benefits of these special places almost seemed like old news. Yet, every garden has a story and community gardens have the best.

The Interbay P-Patch in Seattle, Washington was no exception. With a long history and a very active and loyal community of volunteers and gardeners behind it, our entire episode could have started and finished here. And it just about did. Viewers will enjoy not only seeing the gardens, but meeting some of the regular cast of characters that pour their heart and soul into Interbay; a place they all come to love in a very short time. As much as we thoroughly enjoyed our day at Interbay, our plan for the show was to feature several gardens, presenting a different angle on each.

It's a group effort with Fiskars President Paul Tonneson digging in.

But for the purposes of this post, allow me to share with you a community garden project near and dear to my heart. Just imagine…a new community garden installed from start to finish in eight hours– bare ground that’s transformed into 20 (20×20) raised beds, thousands of bedding plants, hundreds of ornamental shrubs and vegetable seedlings from Burpee Home Gardens and a dozen or so trees. And to make sure it all happens in less than a day, throw in about 80 volunteers who descend upon the site as the sun is just breaking over the horizon.

That image is reality, and it happened in Portland, Oregon this May. It was just one of several installed this year by Fiskars and the ninth in the last two. You know the company—think orange and black. They’re the ones with the amazing pruners and other gardening tools and scissors. Dubbed Project Orange Thumb, they go around the country, identifying cities and communities that would benefit in a special way by having a turnkey community garden, all installed in a day.

Co-designer, Robin Haglund and I celebrating at the end of the day...in a hailstorm

Even more, these gardens aren’t just thrown together. The planning process begins months ahead and culminates in a well-orchestrated event. Thanks to the generous contribution of POT partners, the budget is huge for each garden. Suffice it to say, if you were rounding up, the cost of each project would have five zero’s!

Extravagant? I think not. How do measure the value that will no doubt come from the years of benefits to follow? Countless new and seasoned gardeners will cultivate the soil, care for their crops, converse with new friends and neighbors and build community with each other. Families will break ground together, harvest the fruits of their labor, and enjoy the bounty around the dinner table. It matters not the age, religion, race, political views or economic status of those who share space and time in a community garden. It is all good and that my friends is priceless.

Think you know of an area that would benefit from a community garden such as this? Apply directly to Fiskars to be considered for one of their Project Orange Thumb grants.

Joe Lamp'l is the Host and Executive Producer of the award winning PBS television series Growing A Greener World. Off camera, Joe dedicates his time to promoting sustainability through his popular books, blog, podcast series, and nationally syndicated newspaper columns. Follow Joe on Twitter

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Huh, I couldn’t help but respond to the comment. I think there’s a bunch in the midwest who are pretty darn green. The challenge we in Wisconsin have, in my opinion, is winter! I think there is a lot to teach people in the midwest about gardening in the spring (peas, cole crops, lettuce) and into late fall (kale!). You can harvest some kind of vegetable almost 9 months of the year, even with -30 degree winters. I was planting kale in early March last fall, and my current batch of kale, sage, leek, and parsely is going strong and will continue for at least the next 10 days.

Thank you for telling stories about community gardens. I volunteer at work, managing the employee garden. While I yearn for a larger space of my own, the great thing about the community garden is the density of creativity. I think because people are crammed in so close together, it tends to spur a little more showmanship.

And you make a good point. My comment was not to imply that there are not plenty of green-minded people in the midwest. In fact, Madison, WI is the greenest city in America I’m told, with the largest farmers market in the country. We’ll be going there in season 2 to feature Madison. My point was really that when you get away from CA, where so many people are packed against the coast, combined with the fact that it’s very easy to find green-minded people and stories everywhere you go, as we move east from there, things start getting a lot more spread out. And kudos to you by the way for learning how to extend the growing season. Nine months of growing in such a cold environment is impressive!

Hi Joe, First let me say I love your show. I also love the topics of community gardening and conserving resources. Being from the mid-west, the challenge of organics and being good stewards of the land are a bit more daunting. I would like to see your focus come to this part of the country. West coasters are already green – how about working some of your magic here where people just don’t seem to want to change? Thank you, Kristie

Hi Kristie. First, let me say thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad you love the show. Secondly, we do plan on coming to the mid-west more in season 2. You’re right, the west coast is ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to being green. Now we just have to move that wave across the land to fill in those areas that need a little more convincing. And yes, the mid-west is a daunting but doable task. We’ll be coming your way so keep in touch and we’ll be posting more as we firm up our plans. All the best, JL